brown ale continues, first taste of red

brown ale is at 1.015-02, forgot to get the og, probably was 1.04. i'm on the fence about secondary for this one, so i'm going to take another gravity 2 days in a row and move it to secondary if it seems done. crap, i'm tempted to just rack it anyway so i can get the ryepa in the fermenter! might try irish moss on the ryepa.

red ale that was bottled on 6/15, first taste: very carbonated! not super flavorful. yeasty smell when the bottle was opened. fair bitter dry aftertaste. not syrupy like i was afraid it would be. had a bit of the chill haze. gave a sip to joe, who said "good", as he does to anything that doesn't suck.

red ale - yeast harvest experiment

consolidated harvest jars into one pint jar on 6/2. jar looks good, with a 1/4 inch of yeast at the bottom. waiting for 2 more kits this week. will try to start another batch this weekend if possible

red ale 7th day, 1st in carboy

2 in of green beer at the top, still cloudy. bout a 1/4 inch of yeast in harvest jars. probably a 'wash'. bottle day should be around 6/15. laterr in the evening, i poured off the stuff above the trub from the 2 jars into one pint jar. we'll see how it settles out. listening to some gbv, television, talking heads, zep.

red ale - 6th day

still at 1.015, racked to carboy, harvested trub and a little yeast. gonna try to wash the yeast

5th day

at 1.015. gonna take daily measurements until it stabilizes, then secondary

third day

 gravity was at 1.02, which is where it should finish, i guess. kinda disturbing. added another packet of yeast, proofed for 45 minutes. yeast wasn't super bubbly
 during proofing. not much krausen on the brew. debris around the top line. will give it 3 days to start bubbling again, otherwise, it's probably bad.

next day

no bubbling anymore

First Brew

midwest's 'irish red ale' kit. probably overcooked the grain. water was boiling when LME added, not at 150. steeped for 45 minutes to an hour--probably too long. OG 1.05, airlock bubbled within a couple of hours and continued until the next day.